tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post8135794967354089837..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: July 13, 1967: PNE Agrodome, Vancouver, BCLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-16862235085731428082023-08-18T16:45:52.668-07:002023-08-18T16:45:52.668-07:00That’s my Mom in the picture with Bon Weir & P...That’s my Mom in the picture with Bon Weir & Pigpen. Not her hand, though. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-30753568320005857822023-08-10T18:48:08.775-07:002023-08-10T18:48:08.775-07:00Just saw this online. I have the original newspap...Just saw this online. I have the original newspaper copy as the chick was me lol Great funCandacenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-62949374554011779862020-01-24T11:17:34.728-08:002020-01-24T11:17:34.728-08:00I did a search for the Daily Flash and found an or...I did a search for the Daily Flash and found an original handbill for this concert/love-in. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11454046246945289625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-1298064689481250882019-07-24T16:31:29.237-07:002019-07-24T16:31:29.237-07:00Oh, and Kitsilano (where the greeting committee ca...Oh, and Kitsilano (where the greeting committee came from) was a Vancouver neighborhood known as a "hippy hangout" in those days - much like in Haight-Ashbury, the cheap rents and housing attracted a young crowd who were very much influenced by San Francisco's counterculture. <br />See: <br />https://www.kitsilano.ca/2007/03/03/hippies-and-bolsheviks-in-kits/ <br />https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/that-time-vancouver-s-hippies-took-over-stanley-park-50-years-ago-1.4038794 (on the 3/26/67 Be-In with Country Joe) <br />https://www.vancourier.com/news/positively-4th-avenue-the-rise-and-fall-of-canada-s-hippie-mecca-1.2368955 (a longer article on "the hippie capitol of Canada") <br />See also Lawrence Aronson's book City of Love & Revolution: Vancouver in the Sixties, which emphasizes the links between San Francisco & Vancouver, making the point that "Vancouver followed trends from the United States." Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-58626171219334498222019-07-24T15:48:36.102-07:002019-07-24T15:48:36.102-07:00The Dead hit Vancouver. They had already visited a...The Dead hit Vancouver. They had already visited a couple times in 1966, but by now they were becoming well-known...among the kids if not the newspaper reporters. <br />It's funny that one of the British visitors calls Canada "stuffy and conformist," which sums up the journalistic attitude towards the hippies. Newspapers tended to treat the new movement with contempt, condescension, or derision; rarely with much understanding. Large gatherings were often written about like fashion shows - the show review here was illustrated with pictures of "flower children," young women wearing "psychedelic styles" (which look quite normal today). <br /><br />Hats off to Jim Wisbey for his promotional skills. He initially aimed for the larger outdoor Capilano Stadium, but settled on the Agrodome, and used a variety of techniques to drum up interest: he announced that the show would be a "love-in" (it was no such thing), he arranged for a large group of local hippies to greet the Dead at the airport, and he even got a newspaper story on the Dead's arrival. <br />By this time Vancouver had turned its eyes to San Francisco (as evidenced by one band calling itself the Family Dog!), so there was clearly some local interest in the Dead, despite the rather low concert turnout of 1,300 (the Agrodome holds from 3-5,000). The hippy committee welcoming the Dead may have been a publicity stunt, but it reminds me of the street parade that greeted the Dead when they arrived in New York City the previous month... The Dead's reputation was spreading. <br /><br />Nonetheless, there weren't enough Dead fans in Vancouver to fill any stadiums at that point, and Wisbey's marketing wasn't enough to keep him in business. An article from the 8/5/67 Vancouver Sun tells the sequel: <br />"Controversial club operator Jim (Torch) Wisbey started booking in rock groups to his Dante's Inferno. He lost $1,300 on the Canned Heat, $4,000 on the Grateful Dead, and $1,500 on The Doors. As of this week, the Inferno has been taken over by the Magic Circle, headed by Roger Schiffer, and renamed the Retinal Circus. The new operators will rely on local bands with occasional imports and aim at "the hidden hippies who would like to smile at others without being drunk or doped." In past promotions by the group the posters usually read, "No Hop - No Weed - Just Flowers." And that's the way things are swinging these days..." <br /><br />These stories have little to say about the Dead, since the reporters didn't know the band and didn't care to. (Though the Sun was game enough to print their nicknames upon arrival.) It's observed that Pigpen is their leader, and that they have "$20,000 worth of musical equipment and two managers." <br />Just like the Montreal report, the paper is shocked that local youths didn't greet the Dead with Stones-like screams and mayhem, and remarks on their peaceful behavior. The reporter is astonished that during the show "they sat silently, as rapt as meditative monks," without even dancing much. (This was not the kind of crowd the Dead liked!) The 25 policemen sent to keep order had nothing to do but endure the music. <br />Nothing is said of the music, of course, except that it features "wild, soaring crescendos" and is noisy enough to "assault the ears" and hurt eardrums. One "crowd control" cop present, despite not having to control anyone in the crowd, laments that "it's perhaps the most grueling four hours I ever spent."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com